Chapter 7
"Mom, I'll just drop you off at the station. Qianqian is still in her postpartum period and someone has to stay home with her, otherwise I would definitely take you and Li'er back to Yancheng."
The brother-in-law opened the car door, stood sideways by the roadside, and spoke gently to Lin's mother in the back seat.
Lin's mother quickly pulled Lin Li out of the car. She reached out and pushed her brother-in-law towards the side of the car, her tone full of understanding: "Oh, don't say it's troublesome. We've already taken you to the station entrance, that's enough! You should go back now. Qianqian and the child need someone to take care of them more. My daughter and I can go home by ourselves."
Lin Li stayed at her sister's house for a few days. Because Lin Li still had to study, she had to go back before the National Day holiday ended. Of course, high-speed rail tickets were sold out long ago, so Lin Li and her mother took a bus back.
October 8th.
Lin Li's home is only a 5-minute walk from Yancheng Middle School.
But today he chose to take the bus.
He noticed that bus route 42 was running at the bus stop as he passed by.
I found myself waiting for the bus, almost as if by some strange twist of fate.
After Lin Li got on the bus, she saw many students, including quite a few from her school.
The bus was already packed. Many students didn't like to sit and preferred to stand while holding onto the handrail. Lin Li walked to the back and saw the only empty seat by the window.
The bus only goes two stops to the school, so he probably won't even have time to sit down before he has to get off.
But when asked to stand at the front, he refused. The moment he got on the bus, he smelled a mixture of sweat and hair oil.
And these smells came from the students standing in front of them.
Just as I sat down, the classmate in front of me, who was playing games on his phone, noticed the commotion, turned around, and exclaimed in surprise, "Lin Li? Why are you taking the bus today?"
Lin Li just opened the window and turned around to see Li Jiahao.
"I suddenly felt like sitting down," she said, glancing at the phone in his hand, "You brought your phone into school?"
Yancheng Middle School isn't particularly strict, but the homeroom teachers are. Liu Hongli repeatedly forbade students from bringing cell phones into the school, but no one expected Li Jiahao to be so bold.
"Just leave it at the milk tea shop near the school gate, and you can pick it up when you leave. That's what we always do," Li Jiahao said casually.
Is this even possible?
However, Lin Li didn't want to talk anymore and turned to look out the window, simply because the bus smelled terrible. Didn't these middle school students take showers? He had just smelled a faint body odor!
I'll never take the bus again! Lin Li secretly vowed.
Seeing that Lin Li ignored him, Li Jiahao didn't care and continued playing the game.
Lin Li leaned back against the chair, her head tilting back as well.
Tong Yao was sitting on the bus, holding a vocabulary flashcard in her hand, when suddenly a shadow blocked her view.
Looking up, he then stretched out his finger, pressed it against the back of Lin Li's head, and pushed Lin Li back.
"Why did you take the bus today?"
Lin Li was startled by the movement of the person behind her, and then she heard a familiar voice.
He turned his head sharply and was filled with surprise. He had looked around when he got on the bus but hadn't seen Tong Yao. He thought he was just unlucky and had missed the same bus, but he never expected that she would be right behind him.
Tong Yao was sitting in the innermost seat of the last row, and because she kept her head down, Lin Li naturally didn't notice her.
"Good morning! I just suddenly felt like sitting down, there's no particular reason." Lin Li said with a smile, marveling at her good luck.
"Hmm." Tong Yao didn't press further, simply responding before continuing to memorize vocabulary.
Most of the time, Lin Li saw Tong Yao either studying or on her way to study.
Isn't studying... boring?
Thinking about it, Lin Li turned around, leaned against the back of the chair, and stared at Tong Yao intently.
Lin Li's gaze was too intense.
Tong Yao stopped turning the page and calmly said, "If you're bored, you can memorize some vocabulary words."
As he spoke, he pulled a vocabulary flashcard book out of his school uniform pocket.
Why is someone bringing two vocabulary flashcard books to memorize?
Lin Li took the word cards and saw that the ones in his hand were vocabulary words, 1500 words that must be memorized for the high school entrance exam, while the ones in Tong Yao's hand were phrases that must be memorized for the high school entrance exam.
Just then, the bus's announcement came over the loudspeaker: "Yancheng Middle School, we have arrived. Passengers, please disembark..."
So Lin Li returned the vocabulary cards to Tong Yao and said, "We've arrived at our destination. We'll review them next time."
Tong Yao glanced at Lin Li, took the vocabulary card and put it in her pocket, then stood up and said softly, "Okay, let's go."
Lin Li also got off the car.
There was still a short distance between the bus stop and the school gate. As Lin Li walked, she suddenly asked Tong Yao, "Will you go to Yucheng Experimental High School for high school?"
Tong Yao thought for a moment and said, "It should be, barring any unforeseen circumstances..."
Yucheng Experimental Middle School is the best high school in the province, and it can be said to be the school that students in the whole province dream of.
The school boasts an excellent location in the city center of Yucheng, with a subway station right at the school gate, making it convenient to go anywhere.
Not only that, but it also boasts the best teaching staff, with a 97% rate of students gaining admission to top universities in the national college entrance examination. Why not 100%? Because some students don't take the college entrance examination; they pursue competitions or go abroad.
"Then I want to go to Yucheng Experimental Middle School too!"
"Then we can be classmates again!"
Tong Yao: "Then good luck!"
"Yes, I will. I will try my best."
Cheng Yu ran over as soon as he got out of the car and saw Tong Yao, overhearing everything Lin Li said.
The person who scored 199 in the last joint exam is now saying that he wants to take the exam for Yucheng Experimental School. How is this any different from worrying about whether to go to Tsinghua or Peking University when you were in elementary school?
Good morning, Yao Yao.
After saying that, Cheng Yu snorted coldly at Lin Li, expressing her disdain.
"Good morning."
Tong Yao nodded.
Cheng Yu smiled, took Tong Yao's hand, and pulled her towards herself. She looked at Lin Li and said sarcastically, "You? You're lucky if you can even get into high school. You want to get into Yucheng Experimental School? You're dreaming."
Cheng Yu's grades were good enough to get into a local key high school. In recent years, Yancheng High School has set up a special class for outstanding students, which is the so-called key class. Last year's college entrance examination results were quite good, with 60% of the students being admitted to top-tier universities.
Now that she had finished mocking Lin Li, she was trying to persuade Tong Yao: "Yao Yao, why don't you just study in a local high school? With your grades, you can go to the elite class, where the school can waive all your tuition and fees, and you might even get a scholarship."
In her past life, Tong Yao attended the same elite class, but ended up attending a regular university.
Lin Li initially thought that family reasons forced her to make this choice, but she never expected that you, this troublemaker, were involved!
Lin Li, furious, stepped forward and snatched Tong Yao back: "Don't listen to her. You have to go to Yucheng to study, instead of being stuck in this small place, Yancheng. It's different, really different."
As she spoke, she glared at Cheng Yu beside her, then leaned down and whispered in Tong Yao's ear, "She's so bad, you shouldn't play with her anymore."
Upon seeing this, Cheng Yu stepped forward and pulled Tong Yao along, saying, "The Hongzhi Class is great. If you go to Yucheng, you can only be the tail of a phoenix, but in Yancheng, you can be the head of a chicken. It's actually better!"
"How do you know Tong Yao can only be a nobody over there? Who do you look down on?"
"You respect everyone else, but you look down on me."
…………
Tong Yao was caught in the middle, and the two were still hurling insults at each other.
She was getting a headache from all the arguing. "That's enough."
He pushed aside the two people blocking his way, turned to Cheng Yu and said, "Thank you, Cheng Yu. The Hongzhi Class is great. I'll think about it some more."
"Tong Yao!"
Seeing that Tong Yao was actually still considering it, Lin Li was furious.
She ran straight into the school and ignored them.
He kicked open the classroom door, slammed his backpack onto the desk, and then sat down angrily.
The commotion was quite loud; Tang Yue, who was catching up on her National Day homework, curiously came over.
"Lin Li, what's wrong?"
Lin Li's expression was cold. He didn't answer Tang Yue's question, and said perfunctorily, "It's nothing, I just lost the money."
"I have 10 yuan here, can I borrow it from you?"
"No need, you should focus on finishing your homework."
Lin Li wasn't the type to lose his temper easily. Faced with his friend's concern, he softened his expression. When the topic of homework came up, he suddenly remembered something: "By the way, have you finished your Chinese homework? Can I borrow it to copy?"
"Wait a minute, I just lent it to someone else. I'll give it back to you when they're done using it."
The National Day homework consisted entirely of worksheets, seven for each subject.
There's still an essay to write in Chinese class! Lin Li has written the essay, but the test paper is still untouched.
There's just too much homework in other subjects; honestly, it's impossible to finish it all by myself without copying the answers.
Compared to high school, this was nothing. Lin Li remembered taking a day off during high school.
When I got back, my seat was piled high with exam papers, even the bench was covered in them.
He finished the science assignments, but he didn't write a single word in the humanities assignments.
Since it's the third year of junior high school, the high school entrance exam has already passed, so we only need to study Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry, history, and politics.
The answers to these humanities subjects can be found in the original text, unlike in high school when you couldn't write them even if you looked them up in the book.
Lin Li felt that there was no point in doing this kind of homework, so she didn't do it.
For subjects like history and politics, which are considered minor subjects, their teachers don't check their work at all; he only needs to make up for his Chinese homework.
"Lin Li, take these. A few more have come back. You can use them to pay the difference."
Tang Yue tossed the test paper to Lin Li.
Lin Li quickly took the pen and began writing furiously, not daring to delay for even a moment.
Just as Zhengbu was about to suffer a qi deviation, there was a commotion at the door.
Cheng Yu and Tong Yao walked in one after the other. Lin Li snorted and continued doing her homework.
Tong Yao looked at Lin Li, pursed her lips, and sat back down in her seat without saying a word.
With more than 10 minutes to go before class, Tong Yao glanced at the timetable.
The first class was English.
So I took out my English book, placed it on the table, and began to read it silently.
"Tang Yue, I'm almost done copying. There are still two more pages I need, Exercise 3 and Exercise 5."
Lin Li shouted as he copied.
Tang Yue rummaged through the table but couldn't find it: "Wait a minute, let me ask them."
Then he called out, "Who has Exercises 3 and 5?"
The next second, a voice rang out: "I just gave it to Cheng Yu..."
Tang Yue immediately went to Cheng Yu's seat to retrieve the exam paper.
Cheng Yu is now the group leader of Tang Yue's group, and is responsible for collecting the group members' assignments.
"Cheng Yu, where's the test paper from earlier?"
Tang Yue walked over and said to Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu lowered her head, not looking at Tang Yue, and said arrogantly, "No."
Seeing this, Tang Yue frowned in displeasure. How could this person be like this!
"Tang Yue, we've got English exercises 4 through 7. Do you want more?"
Another voice rang out from the crowd; it was Li Jiahao.
"Yes, yes, yes! Give it to me quickly, the teacher will be here soon, can you write two for me, I can't finish writing."
He was in a bit of a hurry, so he called out to Lin Li, "Wait a minute, I'm too busy here."
Everyone went to finish their homework, leaving Lin Li alone swaying in the wind.
Lin Lierkang said, "No!"
Just as he was biting his pen, deep in thought, a set of test papers was pushed over from the side.
The cover bears the owner's name—Tong Yao.
Lin Li was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Tong Yao. Tong Yao was looking at her English book and didn't look at him. As if she noticed his gaze, she moved her lips slightly, her voice devoid of emotion: "Copy it quickly, and give it back to me before class."
You should know that Tong Yao would never lend her homework to others to copy. Lin Li remembers that the first time he met her was because of this homework-copying incident. At that time, Tong Yao was the top student in the entrance exam for junior high school. He knew this as soon as school started, so he asked Tong Yao to lend him her homework to copy. However, Tong Yao refused to lend it to him, so Lin Li stuck with her. Over time, the two became familiar with each other.
Of course, in the end, Lin Li didn't get to borrow Tong Yao's homework to copy.
As Lu Xun once said, one cannot simultaneously possess youth and the feeling of youth.
Thinking back on the good times they had shared, his anger deflated like a punctured balloon, leaving only an inexplicable awkwardness.
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